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Over the past several years, 10 Investigates has spoken with families\u00a0<\/a>who say the dip into the water turned deadly. One of them was Wade Fleming, whose mother died after she contracted an infection from Vibrio vulnificus.<\/p>\n “If I had known that, you know, that it was something so severe, we would have stayed, but again, there were no signs, no warnings,\u201d Fleming said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you look at the national trends in this Vibrio vulnificus or so-called flesh-eating bacteria type of infections, we are seeing an increase over the last several years.\u201d Dr. Antarpreet Jutla<\/a> said.<\/p>\n While infections are rare, Dr. Jutla at the University of Florida and his team are taking water samples across Florida waterways to better understand Vibrio and whether they can identify hot spots for when the bacteria occurs.<\/p>\n \u201cOver the last several years, based on the national trends in Vibrio infections, we are concerned that there might be shifts in the ecological conditions that may favor the growth of some of these Vibrios,\u201d Dr. Jutla said.<\/p>\n He says the ultimate goal would be to develop a prediction system, similar to what we have for weather systems, and let people know where there may be a low or high risk of the bacteria.<\/p>\n \u201cOur idea here is that we have sufficient ecological data sets that can be measured from satellites that then can be used to develop some sort of a prediction matrix to tell us that what is going to be the risk of presence of these pathogens in the water systems. And then, we are hopeful that we should be able to give at least two to three weeks of time, like a lead time warning that these Vibrios may be lurking around,\u201d Dr. Jutla said.<\/p>\n